"Release the compendium and I will release the penguins."

Dota 2's subreddit started a penguin kidnapping meme to coax information about this year's International Compendium out of Valve.

Each year before Dota 2's biggest tournament, The International, Valve releases a purchasable pass, known as a Compendium (or Battle Pass), that gives players access to a wide range of bonus cosmetics, items, and features related to that year's event. Valve has teased this year's Compendium, but Dota 2 fans, fed up with the long wait for information, have taken drastic measures on the game's subreddit.

The chronicle seems to have begun with a post from user "battlefurywindrunner", who shared some images of Dota hero Bounty Hunter holding five penguin couriers hostage in a post titled "Don't play with me." "For each long insufferable hour without the compendium one of these little innocent cuties will die," reads the post, which was later edited to include a new image of the penguins, this time with one missing some health.

From here other users started to get in on the fun, most notably a user named "Clockwerkx", who started making memes of various Dota heroes getting involved in the hostage situation, at a rate of about one per hour. You can see the whole epic tale on Clockwerkx's Reddit user page, or in this post which brings them all together.

Shortly after the meme started, a post from the official Dota 2 Twitter account seemingly confirmed the Compendium will be coming sometime today. But that wasn't the only by-product of this goof. Reddit user "Possessimal" pointed out that the price of the Scuttling Scotty penguin courier has doubled on Steam's community market, and Scotty's creator, "Humanist_NA", made a post showing his appreciation for the meme which put his courier back in the spotlight.

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The Dota community is known for creating outrageous memes when their patience runs thin, and this penguin chronicle is just the latest example. Now that the penguins are (mostly) safe and sound we can await the official announcement, which should be coming sometime today, in peace.